In a country where one in five people live under the shadow of insurgency, it is a battle far tougher than Kashmir or Iraq or Afghanistan. India's richest lands, home to its poorest people, are set to become the country's main theatre of conflict in a massive new push against Maoist rebels over the next five years and beyond, in impossible terrain and in impossible conditions.

India has finally decided to take the 42-year-old insurgency head-on. In terms of scale and terrain, it is set to be one of the world's toughest battles against insurgency. The main battleground, Chhattisgarh's remote, deeply forested Bastar region - home to some of the world's best iron ore -is ten times the size of Kashmir Valley and has vast swathes under the domination of the rebels for at least two decades.

Fighting Red Terror

Indian Air Force will take adequate counter-measures to protect its choppers and pilots from Naxal attacks, Home Minister P Chidambaram said today. Naxals brutally killed abducted intelligence officer Francis Indwar in Jharkhand yesterday.

The IAF today said it will deploy its commando units to defend its helicopters and men on board in Naxal-infested areas, but made it clear that they would not carry out any "rambo-style" operation against the Maoists.

Railway minister Mamata Banerjee inspected the site where at least twenty passengers were killed and 150 injured when suspected Maoists blasted rail tracks in West Midnapore district early today and said a high powered investigation has been ordered.